Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii

[furgle]

R Aquarii is a symbiotic star system where a white dwarf is drawing material from its binary red giant companion. The extra material is then ejected into space in loops and jets.

The challenge was to get some detail of the jets, especially the small blue ones without having the star bloom through. Lots of bracketed exposures for this one.

**Image:**
* 22x 60s Luminance bin1x1
* 36x 210s Luminance bin1x1
* 70x 480s Luminance bin1x1
* 8x 30s Red bin2x2
* 10x 105s Red bin2x2
* 20x 240s Red bin2x2
* 9x 30s Green bin2x2
* 9x 105s Green bin2x2
* 21x 240s Green bin2x2
* 10x 30s Blue bin2x2
* 10x 105s Blue bin2x2
* 18x 240s Blue bin2x2

Total exposure 16 hours 48 minutes.

**Hardware:**
* Celestron C11 EdgeHD
* SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
* QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
* Astronomik Typ2 LRGB filters
* Starlight Xpress Active Optics
* Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
* Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
* Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

**Location:**
* Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
* Imaged over 4 nights, half moon.

Higher resolution here (http://adam.lundie.com.au/astrophotography/Symbiotic_Star_System_R_Aquarii/Symbiotic_Star_System_R_Aquarii_201 70920.html)

[multiweb]

A great project and very well executed. Gorgeous shot. :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

That's great Adam, well handled, particularly given where you are imaging from. It is indeed an intriguing star system, in fact, as it happens I am part of an international team currently preparing an exciting paper on it :thumbsup:

Mike

[rustigsmed]

great work Adam, fantastic to see something different imaged, you've done really well here showing the structures.

cheers

[Placidus]

Awesome! A real action shot! One can imagine it all happening. :eyepop:

[atalas]

Totally agree with all the guys Adam....excellent work :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Merlin66]

I haven't checked it out, but the spectrum of this object would be very interesting.

[DJT]

A really interesting image. Nicely done. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

That's a nice example of this object. Love the colour saturation too.